(18/04/10)The Reports and Archive sections have been updated with further documents and links

(11/07/09)A critique of Prof. Newton's report to South Central SHA has been posted in Reports.Read more.

(28/09/08)A critique of the South Central Strategic Health Authority Consultation Paper on Water Fluoridation in Southampton, has been posted in Reports.Read more.

(07/09/08)A response to the Chief Dental Officer's 'Dear Colleague' letter of guidance for new schemes, endorsed by scientists from the York review, has been posted in Reports.Read more.

(23/06/08)Isle of Man has announced on 12th June that it will not be fluoridating its water supplyRead more.

Welcome

Please feel free to look around the Reports and Archive sections, or if you are looking for questions regarding the fluoridation of water, the FAQ section is there to help any queries you may have.

The parliamentary registration of the APPGAF ceased when the 2010 General Election was called. Steps are in being taken to establish a new group as soon as possible. Details will be available on the website in due course.

We cannot therefore respond to general enquiries for the former APPGAF at the present time.

New fluoridation scheme for Southampton?

A consultation process was started on 8th September 2008 for a possible new fluoridation scheme in the Southampton area. This will run until 19th December. There have been protests locally about the biased account of the evidence given out by South Central Strategic Health Authority, with whom the final decision will rest, and changes were made to the literature as a result. But the SHA's current consultation paper remains a flawed and unscientific document.

About this website

This website offers well-informed comment on some current issues. We do not aim to duplicate what other websites already cover, for example by providing all the latest news on the fluoridation scene.

We believe in arguing the case forcefully, but without overstating it. Where we give one side of the picture, this is to draw attention to important areas which 'official' presentations leave out. Readers should be aware of the deep commitment to fluoridation, dating back to long before the state of the evidence was known, by dentists and doctors, by public health bodies and by government, who between them issue most of the information on the subject.

Most professions hold some beliefs which acquire the status of sacred cows. In the authoritarian culture of the medical professions it is especially hard to challenge the received wisdom of fluoridation. This website does that, in a variety of ways.

Readers interested in parliamentary activity over fluoridation should go to www.parliament.uk

What is fluoridation?

Water fluoridation is a complex issue, differing from other medical interventions in a number of ways.

It is given indiscriminately to populations,

many of whom cannot benefit from it,

without the normal procedures of informed consent,

and without the normal medicinal licensing procedures,

by an uncontrolled dose

for a lifetime

via water supplies which feed into the environment;

it also raises disputed questions of law relating to medicines and human rights.

In addition it requires technical equipment which is not without problems and expense. The gap between the claimed therapeutic dose and the toxic dose of fluoride is unusually narrow. Fluoridation is only one of a number of methods of combating dental caries.

This means that in addition to the usual scientific questions of efficacy and safety, there are other criteria by which society may decide whether or not to fluoridate, as examples from other countries that have rejected fluoridation demonstrate.

The questions that must be addressed in a free and responsible society are therefore

environmental

ethical

legal

scientific

technical

cost-effectiveness related

At present only the scientific question is being publicly addressed, in the wake of the York Review and the MRC's report. All these questions, however, need to be satisfactorily answered before fluoridation schemes are promoted in a society which respects individual freedoms, the environment, the law, value for money, and good scientific evidence.

Meanwhile 5 million people are receiving fluoride through their water supply, which is probably a greater number than receive any medical drug [Compendium of Health Statistics for 2000, 14th Edition].